New Zealand Trip

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23 Dec 2003 -  3rd day in New Zealand

0804 - Oakura, New Zealand (39.07S, 173.57E) - on the west coast near New Plymouth.  I'm in a campervan park next to the beach.   The sound of surf, a gray sky above and a light rain surround me as well as various kinds of vehicles and some folks in sodden sorry looking tents.  My campervan is snug.   I've worked out how everything works and organized myself and my things inside so that life is tolerable.  Here are some shots of Oakura and the campervan park. 

The Old Boys Surf Club	My spot in the park	View to the southwest	View to the north
Another of the park	A tree in bloom here	Close up of the bloom	A serious NZ camper

This morning, I've had a nice bowl of Musilex (not sure about the spelling) and a cup of instant coffee.

I was tired last night and went to sleep about 2200 after writing a long e-mail to Sharon detailing what I learned when I visited the Duncan & Davies Nursery here in New Plymouth.

I woke up refreshed this morning at 0600.  The sky was semi-clear when I turned in but over night, it has clouded over.   I'm not sure if this is really rain or just a typical heavy coastal fog /rain mix that will burn off as the day advances.   No matter.   What ever happens, I am loving it here.

I thought when I came off the ship that I would be reconnected to the world again.   Internet, TV, papers and magazines.  Not really so at all.   Other than a little TV at the Seamen's Mission and a quick scan of the Internet for news in Tauranga, I've remained isolated.   Hence, I have no idea what the weather is doing other than what I can see.

At the moment, life is very simple.  I have only to get to Wellington by mid-afternoon or earlier on December 24th and check into the hotel for XMAS eve and day.   Yesterday and the day before were focused on getting down to this area so I could visit with the folks at Duncan & Davies before they were unavailable due to the holidays.  Not that I drove here to the exclusion of all else - but I did have a destination and a timing constraint.

Today, I am going to work my way around the south western corner of the North Island and start across the southern side towards Wellington.   If I see 2nd hand shops or anything else of interest, I can stop at will.

There is a huge volcano dominating this part of the North Island - Mount Taranaki, 8261 ft.   Captain Cook saw it when he came this way during the early explorations of this area. 

The beach here is black volcanic sand.   Surfing is very popular here - as are athletics of all sorts in NZ.  I have the impression that lots of folks work hard to be here along this coast.  Summer homes for people from Auckland, young surfers sharing apartments, weekend treks down from Auckland, wealthy retirement homes overlooking the sea.   It is nice here.   I think the population here is low enough that middle income folks have a good shot at getting a place here by the sea.   That's quite unlike places in the States like Laguna Beach where wealth is a prerequisite.

0847 - Outside, it continues to rain and the tide is coming in.  I'm listening to music on my laptop as I type.  Folks are hiding in their tents or making treks to the restrooms.  I'm going to switch now to writing up the things that happened yesterday.

0930 - Judging by the intensity of the rain, I'd have to say <smile> that this probably isn't a heavy morning fog.  Ah, right then!  Let it rain, I've got a bar of Cadbury's chocolate here.

1055 - Just took a break from writing and made a sandwich and went out for a brief walk.   It is quite stormy though not raining at the moment.   I was thinking of the Direct Tui.   This weather comes from the west so I imagine they've had to go through it.   I hope they didn't have a big storm and I missed it!   Looks also like most folks here are packing up.   It is the 23rd of December and I imagine Christmas at home is looking good to them compared to rain at the beach.

A cheeky little bird	Interesting beach plants	More plants	A close up
The beach to the North	And to the South	More plants	And close up

I think I'll be finished writing by noon and then I'll take off as well.   I like this schedule of laying about until noon and then driving five or six hours and then settling in again.

1105 - Done writing.   I'm going to pack things up in travel mode and take off.

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The road that goes around Mount Taranaki on the western end of New Zealand's North Island is called the Surf Highway apparently because of the number of great surfing spots along the coast.

Other than New Plymouth, the area is sparsely settled.   As I headed south along this highway, the towns were scattered along it like beads and there were many side roads that went off to the right towards the coast or to my left towards Mt. Taranaki.   If you looked at most of these roads, they changed to gravel almost immediately.

I was curious about the side roads so I tried one or two on my right side leading down towards the coast.   The highway here is almost always set back from the coastline by one to five kilometers.

The first road I tried was desolate (Porikapa Road).   I took a landscape movie here.  A few houses scattered here and there, a few farm buildings.   And almost everywhere you looked, there were these mounts of earth - many of them as high and bigger than a house.   Sitting on top or on the sides of them were boulders and these showed little sign of long weathering as their edges were sharp rather than rounded.  At one place, I saw they'd cut away the side of one of these and inside, it seemed to be soil and boulders.

I regret that I didn't think to take a photograph of these mounds but I think they are easily imagined.  I found myself wondering if they might have something to do with the first people here, the Maoris, but I gave this idea up because of the sheer number of mounds.

One of the roads I tried (Pungarehu Road) took me out to Cape Egmont - a very end-of-the-world kind of place.   I suppose that isn't fair, it was an odd time just before the Christmas holidays and it was on a Tuesday and ugly with raining.

In any case, out at the cape, there were a few buildings.   One of them, I think, was called the Egmont Boat Club.  It was a fairly sizeable structure an on the side of it, they were building a lighthouse.  Beside the building, on the ground, you could also see what was probably going to be the top of the lighthouse.  In front was a concrete boat launching ramp and a number of guidance pilings leading out to sea.  Given the fact that not a soul was around and it didn't look like there had been much activity recently, it all seemed pretty bleak to me.

From the nascent lighthouse, I drove along a gravel road that parallel the coast line.   There were a few scattered houses along the way.   One got the impression that the people who lived in these had decided to turn their backs on civilization and were perched here at the end of the world in near-perfect isolation.  The buildings were run-down for the most part so money was not, evidently, in good supply.  No one appeared as I passed and some of them may have been unoccupied or abandoned.

At one point, the road had a long hedge or New Zealand Flax (I'd seen this type of hedge a lot).   At another point, there was a classic Norfolk Island Pine.   These are also very common here everywhere I've been.  Because of the wind, some of the weathered trees can be quite dramatic.

Later, when I stopped in Rahotu for Diesel, I asked the lady there about the mounds I'd seen and she told me they were called Rahus or something like that.   She said that they were the product of the volcanic action of Mt. Taranaki.   They were huge chunks of rock/lava blown out of the cone which landed in the area.  Now, they have moldered down into mounds covered with grass but the rock chunks they are mostly composed of tell their story.

In the general store at Rahotu, the proprietor and I chatted and I told him about my holiday and he gave me a 2004 calendar for Rahotu.   I venture to say that when I return home, I may be one of the very few to have one of these in North America.  I was very happy to have it.

At another point, I stopped at Taranaka Farms at a small store/restaurant and got a cup of tea and a BLT for $5NZ.

After I filled up, I drove for a long time without stopping.  I remember the town of Wanganui looked very pretty and I think it would be well worth a visit again sometime. It is the largest town on the coast between Cape Egmont and Wellington.   But, I was thinking that I wanted to be within easy driving distance of Wellington when I stopped tonight and so I just continued on.

Later, I came across a town with the unlikely name of Bulls.   And, indeed, this town takes the theme of Bulls and rides with it.   It was a fun place and I parked and walked up and down the main street.  There were several antique stores which I went into.   In one, they had a lot of little metal hot-wheels type cars but older and I looked through those closely because I'm looking for a small tow truck for my friend, Gene Whiteside.   But, they had nonesuch.  At another store, I struck up a conversation with the lady there and she told me about some of her family who'd been to Canada and Montana and we chatted for a bit.   She didn't have any of the small cars and I commented on it and she said they would be quite rare and that the lady at the other store had a parent, her father I believe, who was an American and that this was why they probably had a number of the little cars.

(Yum, I'm writing this in my hotel room on the 25th and a room service Caesar Salad has just shown up and it looks good.)

After Bulls, at one point, I made an abortive stop at a New Zealand Air Force Museum but they'd just closed.

At another point, there were so many sheep that I just had to take a picture.

Once I left Bulls, I started to think about stopping.   At that point, I was within 140 km of Wellington and that should be an easy drive in the morning.  

The first place I pulled off was where a side road led to Tangimoana on the coast.  The map showed camping there.   It was fairly far out to the town and it was a pretty raggedy looking place to my eyes.  I wasn't sure where the camping sites were and at one point, I'd come to a place where there was a boat ramp to my left, what looked like a dead end straight ahead and to my left there were two or three cars of young guys hanging out together.  I asked one of them if he knew where the campervan sites were, and he said back, in a heavy New Zealand accent that, "No, Mate, there aren't any".   Then, a moment later (maybe one of his buddies reminded him?) that there was a motor park if I went back the way I came and then followed the road to the left.  I thanked him and turned the van around which took two back and forths to do.  

This was the only time I've run into a group with what might have been a bad attitude in New Zealand.  These guys were out there on that dead end road up to no good and probably looking for trouble - you could just sense it.   But, in a backwater like Tangimoana, I doubt there's much to do.

When I got to the motor park, it was a real dive.   I supposed that they could rent me a power hook up for the night but I didn't see much attractive about the place so I decided to press on.  The trailers parked in there were small and scrappy and most of them looked like the folks that lived in them were going to be homeless if this didn't work out.

So, back out the the main highway south again.   Blazing along, and I see a blue sign on the road side indicating camping so I pull off to the right quickly and head down another road.   I drive out to the end and I see nothing that looks like a campervan park.   The road dead ends on private property and I'm baffled.   I turn around and I pass a farm with a Work Stay sign out front.   It looks nice but there's nothing that looks like camping spots.   Back at the main highway, I look at the blue sign again - it says Bed and Breakfast.   Jeez.  I was way to quick on the draw on that one.   I should read them more closely before I fling myself down the road.

Now I'm watching for Himatangi Beach.   The map shows camping there but then so did Tangimoana.   I find it and off I go.  

This time, there's a nice little town at the end of the road and it is on the beach.   I drive around and there seems to only be one motor park so I pull in and lease a spot for the night.   Nice folks - nice place.  The town has a web site - look it up and drop it into this text.

In the evening, after a shower, I walk a block and a half to one of the two watering holes in town.   It looks new and it is called "The Boardwalk".   Inside, there are two fellows talking, Frank and Gary.   Gary and his wife (Poppy, I think?) own the place.  Frank is a regular.   Or, at least as regular as a regular can be when the place has only been open a few days.   All of them have worked to transform the place into a business over the last 6 weeks.  They have great hopes for it when the summer crowd comes in and I think their hopes are well founded.  We talk.   I tell them about my trip  and Poppy comes out and I stay for quite awhile.   I end up having two Tui beers and a bowl of ice cream and it's a lot of fun.

I learn a few things talking as I often do.   There are two type of poisonous spiders in New Zealand - both imports.  They are nasty like the North America's Brown Recluse spider.   At one point Poppy is talking about doing something early early in the morning and she says, "At first sparrow fart".   I crack up and quiz her about this.   A very funny expression.   Himatangi is growing.   Gary's been there for 14 years working as a builder.   He's just today quit to give himself full time to the new establishment.   In that time, Himatangi has grown a lot and it is becoming 'discovered' by folks looking for a good spot for their Bach.  It blowing and raining outside and water is coming in the window joints over the door.   We all walk outside and look.   Gary says some silicon will be needed and I'm thinking he's right.  frank takes off.   He's a bit sloshed.   Poppy's telling me that she's a hospitality consultant when she's not doing this.  She seems pretty high energy to me.   I think she'll make all of this work.

After the two beers, I walk back to the campervan and after a short and mostly unsuccessful attempt to read, I turn off the light and turn in.